Get Ready! YTGB is headed back to Nicaragua!

While summer was being enjoyed by everyone, Yorkton and Area Teacher Give Back was busy starting to plan their return trip to Granada, Nicaragua. The group has maintained a relationship and contact with the organization over the past year, and are ready to head back and continue working with La Esperanza to promote growth and change in some of their most in need communities.

During the summer of 2016, we went to Granada and built a home for a family that was chosen by La Esperanza Granada (the organization we worked with). At that time, the group consisted of 3 Yorkton teachers. Now, the group has expanded and we are bringing along more people!

Over the next month, the group will be meeting to decide on a project that they will take on. Stay tuned for opportunities to come out and support the group!

The End

We have made it home safe and sound! We are tired and missing Granada but it's nice to be home.

Our last week in Granada was a full one. We finished our build of the Hernandez house on Thursday August 11th 2016. We spent the morning and most of the afternoon on Thursday to finish the build. The day was spent putting all the finishing touches up on the house. The cement floor was completed, and we put up all of the exterior wood. It was an emotional day, full of excitement to be finished, but also sad to be say goodbye. The builders have been wonderful to work with and even though we didn't speak a common language, we understood quite a lot just from gestures and intuition. The Hernandez family is going to enjoy many years of happiness and memories in their new house, and we are so excited that Ashly will have a safe and happy place to grow up.

Our last days in Granada were spent with our ayudantes, meeting a few expats, visiting Masaya market, and just enjoying the city a few more times before heading home.

First off we want to thank Jerry soooooo much. He has been a valuable friend to have during our time in Nicaragua. He worked with us each day on the build site and helped us translate and work on our Spanish. His sense of humour was extremely enjoyable and he made some of the harder days a little easier. We hope for great things for Jerry. He has so much potential and we know his future is bright!

Halfway point check in! Build Update

We are now well past our halfway point of our project and visit to Nicaragua. We've seen a lot of amazing things and have met a lot of really neat people who we've learned a lot from. The Hernandez family is almost ready to start enjoying their new house, and we can comfortably say that we have set what seemed to be a huge, nearly impossible goal, and will reach it by the end of the week.

At the beginning

Halfway Finished!

Lionel, our regular builder has been so patient with our broken Spanish, and will do anything to ensure that we are comfortable doing whatever needs to be done. It's quite amazing to see how people have to communicate with one another on a project like this, and really gives us a new appreciation for the many new Canadians that have been learning English back home. It is a whole new level of frustration and tests of patience, but is so rewarding when we can look at our project and see the progress that we have made together.
We are doing our best to ensure that Canadians will be seen as a hard-working people in Nicaragua, and if the exhaustion we feel at the end of the day, or the insane sweats we are working up is any indication of hard work, then I think we are doing just that.

In progress

 When we had first decided on the home build for our major project in Nicaragua, we weren't exactly sure what to expect. All three of us have done home renovations, and DIY projects, but building a house was a little out of our comfort zones. When we were telling others about our plans, their first reaction was usually "Do you have any idea how to build a house?". The answer was always a definite "No.".
What is really neat about La Esparenza's projects is that we are teamed up with very capable locals who are hired for the project. We are under constant supervision, and from day one, we were very flexible as to what we were willing to do to help Lionel and Mario out.
To date, our jobs have been:

• Digging trenches around the perimeter of the house to allow posts to be placed and bricks to be laid
• Painting oil on all surfaces of wood to prevent rot (this took forever)
• Mixing cement
• Separating rocks from sand for cement
• Bricklaying
• Nailing anchors to posts to allow movement
• Hauling cinder blocks and other materials
• Attaching frames
• Disassembling preexisting home structures

  

  #teamwork

This is by no means easy work. At the end of the day we are absolutely exhausted, and it is a great feeling.

Making Progress!

Right now, the three of us are sitting around in our living room, drinking some cafe after our third working day in Nicaragua. We are all pretty tired and a little sore, but have had some pretty great days!

First of all, meet Jerry! 


Jerry is our Ayudante from La Esperanza. He meets us every morning to take us to the build site, and spends the day with us. He knows a decent amount of english and is therefore a very valuable friend to have. This is especially handy when no one else at the build site speaks English! Jerry is basically an intern; he works in the community, helping with the volunteers for 6 hours each day and attends university all day on Sundays.  He is taking administration. It has been great having Jerry around to help us with the build, acting as our security guard, and providing us with entertainment when the sun gets too hot for us to smile on our own.  

Now for the build. 

To begin each work day, Jerry meets us at our house and walks with us to the build site. Its about a 40 minute walk. The first day we had a late start due to the inevitable miscommunication that comes with not speaking the language of the citizens here. Even though our work day was by far our shortest work day, it was probably the most painful one. The sun was shining, it was hot and humid, and these 3 chicas were digging 80 inch holes into the hardest soil/clay we had ever encountered. To do this, we used 6 foot metal rods that had a wedge on the end to loosen up the soil, then, one of us would use a shovel to clear the loosened up dirt.
Sounds easy right?
It was labor intensive work in the 35 degree sun, and we were very happy when lunch time came!

We are also fortunate enough to have two professional builders working with us. They are fantastic. They do not speak any english, but have been very patient with us! We like to think we have done a fairly good job of communicating through broken spanish and hand gestures
(and Jerry. Actually, mostly Jerry.)

In the first three mornings, we have accomplished more than we initially thought we would!

We have:
*dug all of the holes for the posts and painted the posts with motor oil (this is to prevent deterioration)
*Taken down about 40% of the previous home
*dug trenches along 75% of the perimeter (the brick for the new house will go into the ground to make it sturdier)
*The roof beams have been placed

As we were leaving today, Lionel (one of our builders) asked us if we were ready for cement work and cinder blocks tomorrow. Truthfully, the answer is likely no, but we're up for it! 

Here are some photos from today and our progress!

The back of the Hernandez house after tearing down one wall and digging trenches around the perimeter

Christa poses and catches her breath

Karen loosening up the dirt in the trenches

The posts are placed!

More trenches. There was a lot of digging trenches.

How we left casa de Hernandez today

Elora hard at work

Lunch Time! 

Anna is a local woman who has a store out of her house and has been working with La Esperenza for the last 5 years. She offers her home to volunteers to come and enjoy some local cooking for lunch for a very small fee. Her home is  a 10-15 minute walk from our build site and is very convenient for a nice break from the sun between building and school time.

Time to hang out with some kids! 

The first two days we headed home after lunch. With the language barriers there was a bit of confusion about where we were going. Today, since the learning centre was closed, we headed to one of the schools to hang out with some kids. We met with two men and a woman from England who are living right at the school with 11 of their female students who were volunteering with World Expedition.  It was great to converse with others in similar professions having a very different experience volunteering in Nicaragua.
Justo, another ayudante, met us and paired us up with a student each to practice some really basic english with. The kids were really excited to have all the extra adults around, and loved taking photos with us and playing games or colouring.

Tomorrow, we are going back to the school and doing a salsa lesson with the kids! We are very excited for it!

Here are some photos from today at the school!

Christa and Rolando

Karen and Amanda practicing spanish/english counting

Some chalk drawings

Nora and Elora

Some 1:1

Jerry helps translate for Nora and Elora

Our First Couple of Days

Pandora Hostal 




After a very long day travelling, we were picked up by the owner of Pandora Hostel at the airport in Managua. Adi and Matt are a lovely couple that run this hostel and made our first evening away, enjoyable and comfortable. The hostel was clean and had a very welcoming and chill vibe. We would highly recommend this hostel to anyone thinking of staying in Managua.

After checking out our room and the rest of the hostel, we enjoyed a few cervaza in the sitting area. We were eventually joined by Adi and Matt and had a great time talking about our lives and getting to know each other.

The night was extremely hot and humid! We all needed to go stand in the cold shower before heading to bed with a fan on us. Elora slept like a baby however Christa and Karen had a little difficulty sleeping in the heat. There was also some noise from a group of rowdy guys from Holland. #hostellife

In the morning we all had a traditional Nicaraguan Breakfast which included toast, egg, cheese and gallo pinto (rice and beans). The cheese was very strange compared to our cheese back home. Elora ate all three servings of cheese. #cheeselife


Here are some photos of the hostel! Check them out if you are ever in Managua!



Managua City 

Approximately 1 million people live in Managua City. The business of the city was the first thing we noticed. Driving to the hostel, vehicles ignored all the lines and the motorcycles drove where ever they pleased. Despite what we saw as a bit of chaos, vehicles got around fairly easily. The hardest part of finding our way around the city was the lack of street signs. Despite the lack of direction, we headed out to explore and set off in the general direction of the local market on recommendation of Adi. We passed expansive old buildings, the military base and the mall along the way. Walking around is not something local people do. There are far more people driving or waiting to take the bus so we were often the only people wandering around.

The market was definitely a lot of firsts for us. We could not spot any other non locals wondering about and no one spoke english. We saw several carts of unidentifiable meat baking in the sun, bagged drinks that we were curious about but a little unsure about trying, and a lot of people, cars, horses and motorcycles all trying to navigate the narrow streets and plentiful vendors. The language barrier was very evident here. The only thing we ended up purchasing was 3 L's of agua.

We experienced a lot of 'cat calling' in Managua. During our research we made note that this type of thing is common but what we did not expect was to get it from more prominent people such as military soldiers. We didn't pass a single male who did not call after us or try to speak with us. Even expecting this, it took some getting used to.



First Impressions of Granada
As soon as we arrived in Granada, we all felt a little less... tense? It was still extremely hot, and very little people speak english, but there seems to be a much slower pace here in Granada. The old, colourful colonial buildings line the streets of Granada making it hard to watch where you are going. There is something beautiful to look at in every direction.

It is also easy to see that this city gets a lot more tourists at certain times during the year, and people seemed a little more patient putting up with our awful broken spanish and hand gestures.

Either way, we walked to our house from the rental office, unpacked and relaxed. We were tired from travelling and the heat.






Some sights from our first day.


La Nueva Esperanza + Juan

We started our Thursday off by meeting Pauline from La Esperanza for breakfast at The Garden Cafe. This was a really great start to our time in Granada. We got the opportunity to ask Paulina some questions about herself, the organization as well as the community we were building in.

We then got to meet Juan. Juan is a very friendly young man that works with La Esperanza as well as lives nearby to the house we are building. Juan took us on a tour of the community and pointed out many of the other projects La Esperanza has worked on including some schools as well!

The community we are working in is a very poor community. There is much litter around, and many of the homes provide minimal shelter (after witnessing our first tropical rain... its hard to imagine these homes keeping the families and their belongings dry)

Everyone was very friendly and seemed happy to see us there. We encountered plenty "Hola's" from many children that we passed. My favourite was the little boy in his yard that yelled to him mom "Mom! Come see the pretty ladies!" (Thanks Juan for the translation)

We got to meet Mrs. Hernandez. She did not speak any english but quickly offered us some chairs and we visited with the help of Juan in the shade behind their house. She wore a smile on her face the entire time we were there and was extremely friendly. The house they currently live in is pretty pieced together and falling apart in many ways. We are not 100% how much is being torn down and how much is being salvaged. We will find out from the builders we will be working with on Monday when we start the project. Below are some pictures of the community we are working in!



We are very excited to start working in the community. We have a few days to do a couple touristy things, get adjusted to the heat and orientate ourselves within the community! Stay tuned!

Elora, Christa & Karen

And we're off!!

Monday evening around 10:30, the three of us met at the Regina airport which is when everything became much more real. With a hiking backpack and a carry on backpack each, we boarded our first flight to Toronto. The first flight was only about 3 hours, but we tried out best to catch some shut eye, as we knew that our excitement would only grow from here, making it much more difficult to sleep.
We arrived in Toronto at 5:30 AM local time (or 3:30 AM "real time" where we all used as much Data as our Smartphones could handle, as it would be our last opportunity to do so for 3 weeks.
Side note - Pidgeys and Ratatas were the only Pokemon caught during this layover. In hindsight, this time would have been best used on Duolingo.
After breakfast, Elora and Karen attempted to sleep which was only partially successful.
We began the second leg of our trip about 3 hours later when we boarded out plane headed for San Jose, Costa Rica. The five hour flight was spent mostly in a sleep/read hybrid state, which really flew by.
The airport in Costa Rica was the first place we really had our first confusing experience with currency and language and was actually a nice way to start out. In preparation of our journey, we had to Exchange our Canadian currency for American in order to trade for Cordovas in Nicaragua. Then, there was Costa Rica's currency that somehow had Christa spend the equivalent of $8.70 Canadian on a bottle of Evian water. (I mean agua).
It was at this airport where Elora ordered her first coffee in Español. #proudmoment
A new experience for the three of us here was seeing the worker dogs sniffing out drugs. There seemed to be quite a few of them, which is something we would never have seen in Canada.
Five hours passed very slowly, but we boarded our final plane around 4:30 PM for the last stretch of our day of travel. The last flight was only a 40 minute one, and to our surprise, when we arrived in Managua, it was already dark! We were able to see the lights of the city which really was beautiful, and felt extremely thankful that we had the safe travels that had been wished upon us by friends and family.
A very successful travel experience, indeed, aside from Christa's aerosol bug spray exploding in her bag and the lack of rare Pokemon spotted.

The Final Countdown

Hey Everyone!

The three of us are frantically dotting the I's and crossing the T's in preparation of our upcoming trip. Its so crazy to think of the journey we have been on thus far. Planning, fundraising, networking... lots of work has gone in to making this possible.

A huge shout out again to all of our local sponsors (check out our sponsor page, shop out those stores!) as well as to our family and friends who have put up with our crazy antics, come to steak nights, listened to us talk endlessly about the trip and of course donated financially as well. Thank you so much!

We thought that for our final blog post before getting to Granada, we would do a little "What did they bring" special. All three of us decided to go the backpack route. Doesn't leave a lot of extra room for luxuries! (I predict Christa being the worst at this. I went to St. Louis with her for 3 days, and I thought she was moving there)

Elora

So, I think that out of the group I am probably the most OCD when it comes to making lists, packing, preparing etc. I also think that the planning stages are an exciting part of the trip as well and I wouldn't put it past myself to forget bringing something essential like clean underwear. So, being over prepared is just my thing.

Before we get to the stuff, I think I should mention that I put a lot of thought into which backpack I was going to purchase for the trip. I do hopefully intend on using it for some backcountry camping experiences in the future as well as for future travels.

So, I ended up going with the North Face Terra 65. It is a 65L hiking backpack. Unfortunately, due to the length of my torso, I couldn't pick up any female specific bags. But, the fit is comfy. It has 2 front pockets, 2 hip pockets, lid storage and access from the top and bottom.

I've done some little hikes around town with the bag weighed down and it seems to do the trick. It's a sturdy bag and I am hoping to take it on many adventures in the futures!!

Also, if you are interested, I am taking my forest green Herschel Backpack as my day pack. I might pick up a small shoulder purse while I am there but for now, I intend on just taking the backpack everywhere.

Here are all the goodies I need to fit into my bags! Below is my complete packing list! Let me know if I missed anything important!

* 1 long sleeve shirt
* 2 t-shirts
* 5 tank tops
* 2 pairs of shorts
* 1 full length legging
* 2 3/4 length legging
* 2 dresses
* 1 towel
* 5 socks (various types)
* 5 pairs of underwear
*2 Sports bras
*1 bra
*Rain Jacket
*Water Bottle
*Sunscreen
*Bug Spray
*First Aid Bag (bandaids, tensors, gauze, creams, advil, prescriptions etc)
*Contacts/Personal bag (contact solution, hair stuff, toothpaste/toothbrush etc)
*Make-up bag (Mascara, eye-liner, lipstick and lots of elastics and bobby pins. But lets face it, make-up will not be staying on my face very long there)
*Charging cords(in little skull purse)
*Travel Journal (has addresses and names and whatnot also a place for me to write cool things down)
*Spanish phrase book
*Floppy hat
*Sunglasses and glasses
*Laptop
*ipad (for reading)
*Dollarama bag has pencils and Canada tattoos for the kids
*2 Buffs
*Shoes - Solomon Hikers, water shoes, Birkenstocks
*Passport/Documents + photocopies
*Moneybelt

I believe that is it! Did I miss anything super important?! Let me know!

Karen

     I am definitely a more laid back traveller than Elora. I leave most things until the last minute and don't think to seriously about all the 'what ifs' that could happen. I think its important to have a certain aspect of the unknown when travelling. Not to say that I haven't taken all the precautions of traveling to a central american country, because I certainly have. However, I am ready for the experience and the learning that goes along with it. I expect tough times and I expect fun times! 

   As for my backpack, I purchased an Osprey Viva 65 L. I tried several packs on and did a lot of research about which pack would be the best for me. I have backpacked in the past and I find that a good backpack is important but how you pack and what you pack really determines how comfortable you are going to be. 

    I also purchased an Osprey Questa 27L Day Pack to use as a carry on as well as a day pack during our long hikes to work. I've taken it on several walks, motorcycle rides and small hikes and so far its pretty great! 



   Now for packing, its a tough decision but I'm trying to bring as little as I think I can get by with. Take a look and if i've missed anything important, let me know! 

* 2 T-shirts
* 5 Tank Tops
* 3 Shorts
* 1 Long Sleeve Shirt
* 2 Full Length Leggings
* 1 3/4 Length Leggings
* 2 pairs of light pants
* 2 Dresses
* 5 Undies
* 5 Socks
* 1 Sports Bra
* 2 Regular Bras
* 1 Towel
* 2 Water Bottles
* Rain Jacket
* Hat
* 60 SPF Sunscreen
* Lots of Bug Spray
* First Aid Type Things- Bandaids, Wrist Brace, Polysporn, Advil, Prescriptions, etc. 
* Contacts
* Glasses/ Sunglasses
* Bathroom Stuff - Toothbrush, Toothpaste, Hair Brush, Ponytails, Bobby pins, Mascara, Lotion, etc. 
* Ipad
* Phone
* E-reader
* Charging Cords
* Travel Journal 
* Buff
* Shoes- Solomon High Top Hikers, Birkenstocks, flipflops for the water
* Passport/Documents & Photocopies
* Money Belt

Christa

After a fair amount of procrastinating, I too have "finished" packing, though I'm already losing sleep over what I'm about to forget. Last year, Elora and I spent one week in St. Louis Missouri, an English speaking city with similar cultural norms, foods and traditions and I somehow remember panicking about that packing excursion as well. in 2008, I spent 3 months in Australia and anticipated bringing home a bunch of treasures and tried to pack as lightly as possible. I ended up packing one small suitcase inside a larger one on the trip there, and I remember frantically throwing things out at the airport when coming home, as I had overstuffed both suitcases to the point of having to pay loads extra to check my baggage.
I really have no idea what to expect once we arrive in a few days so I'm also trying to anticipate the "what if's". I'm a relatively high maintenance person during the school months, and my summers are generally spent taking advantage of not having to shower frequently and airbrush my makeup on. My initial plan was to not bring makeup at all on this trip, as I'll likely sweat it all off anyway, but rather than photoshopping all the photos when we get home, I think I'll just bite the bullet and bring the essentials.

The girls talked me into buying a hiking backpack at Sport Check which I found on sale a few months ago. Behold - My Northface Terra 55 Backpack

Isn't she something. I know nothing about this beauty other than the fact that she was on sale, as she was from the 2014 Spring line. My plan is to take this, and my regular school backpack as my carry-on/day pack, and hopefully all of my treasures will fit like a snug bug in a rug. I've been practicing with it, taking it on Pokemon Go hunts and such, and Elora has helped me figure out how it is actually supposed to fit. I'm skeptical, as I'm a huge suitcase kind of lady, myself, but I'm sure this will work just fine.
Most of what I'm taking with me I don't intend to actually bring home again so I just hope that whatever I decide to buy will fit in here. The clothes that I am taking have mostly come from Value Village in Yorkton

Here is my official pack list for Nicaragua 2016:

Clothing

• 1 x Saskatchewan Roughriders T-shirt (Go Green)
• 2 x Racerback tank tops
• 1 x Camisole top
• 1 x Sports Bra for working
• 1 x Sweater
• 1 x Sun Dress
• 5 x Underoos
• 1 x Swimsuit
• 5 x Socks
• 1 x Yoga Pants
• 1 x Leggings
• 3 x Shorts (One for working, one denim, one for sleeping)
• Hiking Boots (These take up SOOOO much room in my backpack, I'll likely just wear them)
• Birkenstocks
• Work Gloves

Toiletries/Other

• Toothbrush/Toothpaste/Floss Picks
• Cotton Pads
• Pre moistened makeup remover/facial cleansing cloths
• Dry Shampoo (Travel Size)
• Deodorant
• Bath and Body Works Mini Hand Sanitizers
• Lysol Wipes
• Face cloth, Hand towel, Bath towel (Old, Dollarama ones)
• 3 x Bug Spray (Deep Woods Off and Watkins Brand)
• 1 x Spray Sunscreen (SPF 60)
• 1 x Facial moisturizer with SPF 15
• Mini First-Aid Kit
• Pepto Bismol, prescription medication, Gravol, Sleep eeze, Tums, Aerius, Tylenol etc...
• Wrist and Knee Braces
• Locker mirror
• Lulu headband, hair elastics, bobby pins, hairbrush
• Tweezers
• Flashlight
• Clothespins (we won't be using the dryer)
• Mosquito Net hat (The girls really like this)

  

  I'm a Ziplock packer. It keeps me organized when packing/unpacking

• Rain Poncho
• Money Belt
• Ipad (charger)
• Phone charger
• External Battery charger (cords)
• Kobo (charger)
• Sunglasses
• Real Glasses (and cleaning cloth)
• Headphones
• Earplugs
• Sleep mask
• Water Bottle
• Travel fork/knife/spoon, collapsible cup
• Spanish phrase book
• Selfie Stick (bought especially for the occasion)
• Travel Pillow
• Journal

Now, the question remains. What am I missing? There are a few things that I still need to find room for and I'm struggling to get everything to fit. I have a couple of things that have been donated as well to the organization we're working with (toothbrushes, pencils, tattoos - thanks Sue) but I'm going to have to do some more rearranging I'm afraid. 

Wish me luck